NASCAR centerpiece: All eyes on also-rans

Tuesday

Oct 27, 2009 at 12:01 AMOct 27, 2009 at 5:05 AM

Much of the media attention at Talladega will center on Jimmie Johnson, who needs only to keep his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet in one piece to hold serve in the title chase. But in a playoff during which Chasers have dominated to an unprecedented degree, Talladega makes also-rans relevant again.

Speedway Illustrated

Much of the media attention at Talladega will center on Jimmie Johnson, who needs only to keep his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet in one piece to hold serve in the title chase. But in a playoff during which Chasers have dominated to an unprecedented degree, Talladega makes also-rans relevant again. Here are four drivers who will be gunning to salvage something from the 2009 season and kick-start a Chase run in 2010.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No non-Chaser faces greater pressure. Talladega has been Junior’s best track, by a wide margin. Five of his 18 career Cup wins have come here. He’s led laps in all but two of his 19 Talladega starts. A victory here, which would snap a 53-race winless streak, could persuade Rick Hendrick to keep Earnhardt and crew chief Lance McGrew together in 2010. That, in turn, could eliminate a major distraction in this team’s rebuilding effort.

Kevin Harvick
His winless streak stretches even longer than Junior’s: 103 races, all the way back to the 2007 Daytona 500. Harvick did, however, win this year’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona (a non-points event) and finish second in the Daytona 500. Talladega, like Daytona, is a restrictor-plate track, so that bodes well for the No. 29 team. What doesn’t bode well are the recent struggles of the entire Richard Childress Racing organization. A Talladega triumph for Harvick (or teammates Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer or Casey Mears) could give RCR much-needed momentum for the 2010 Daytona 500.

Marcos Ambrose
Like Earnhardt and Harvick, this Australian import hasn’t won a Cup race this year. In fact, he’s never won a Cup race, period. Still, he has performed beyond expectations for JTG Daugherty Racing. (Just ask Earnhardt and Harvick, who trail him in the standings.) He finished second at Watkins Glen – not terribly surprising, given his road-racing background. He also finished third at Bristol – very surprising, given his road-racing background. A victory at Talladega (where he finished fourth in April) would be the cherry atop a season of pleasantly surprising Sundays.

Carl Edwards
Technically he’s not an “also-ran” because he made the Chase. But like fellow Chasers Brian Vickers, Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne, he has no shot at catching Jimmie Johnson. Unlike Vickers, Hamlin and Kahne, however, Edwards has yet to win in ’09. Further, he’s had two straight harrowing wrecks at Talladega. Last October, he triggered a crash (with Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle, no less) that kept him from taking the points lead. In April, his last-lap tangle with Brad Keselowski not only cost him a win, it sent him sailing into the safety fence. For a driver of Edwards’ extraordinarily competitive nature, a win at Talladega would be extra special.

NEXT RACE AMP ENERGY 500, Talladega Superspeedway
THE LOWDOWN Planet Sprint Cup tends to spin off its axis at Talladega. This wild-and-woolly restrictor-plate track is renowned for producing upset winners and very upset losers. Expect the Amp Energy 500 to be even more fraught with tension. ’Dega has never hosted a race this late in the Chase. NASCAR has made the plate openings even smaller, which should make the cars more tightly bunched than ever. And this will be the first time for double-file restarts here. The threat of wrecks and the importance of drafting partners transforms Jimmie Johnson from nearly invincible to very vulnerable. And if that weren’t topsy-turvy enough, there’s this prediction from eternal pessimist Mark Martin: “I think I’m gonna have some good karma going in there.”

Driver Profile: Kurt Busch
WHY HE MATTERS: Martinsville all but killed his title hopes
WHAT HE SAYS: “It’s definitely a pressure-cooker situation.”
WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY: Has highest average finish at Talladega (12.1) of any Chaser

Quote of Note
“Even though [the championship] is not obtainable, we’re at least achieving small victories.”
–Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin

Where to Watch
Sunday’s pre-race show on ABC starts at noon EST, followed by the race at 1 p.m.

UP TO SPEED
The Leaders of the Pack
In racing, conventional wisdom holds that the best way to avoid trouble is to stay ahead of everyone else. By that logic, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin would appear to be the best bets to finish well on Sunday, based on the average number of laps each has led per start at Talladega (see chart). Then again, Talladega is known for flouting convention. In April, for instance, Carl Edwards was leading as the field sprinted for the finish, and he still found trouble. Big trouble – a tumble into the fence. Brad Keselowski motored past for a shocking win. That was the only lap Keselowski has ever led at Talladega.

Home Boys
Denny Hamlin, winner of Martinsville’s Tums 500 Sprint Cup race, wasn’t the only Virginian to come up big in his home state last weekend. Timothy Peters, a Danville native, scored his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck series win in the Kroger 200 at Martinsville on Saturday.

Like Father, Like … Daughter?
“Not many people can say they get to drive race cars at Talladega Super Speedway with their daughter,” Mike Wallace says. In fact, he’s the only one who can say that. Wallace, a 20-year veteran who has made more than 600 starts, combined, in NASCAR’s three majors series, will make history this weekend when he and his daughter, Chrissy, both compete in the Mountain Dew 250 Camping World Truck race. While father-son duels have been common over the years, Mike, 50, and Chrissy, 21, will be the first father-daughter duo to compete in a major NASCAR event. “It’s something that we've always wanted to do,” says Chrissy, who finished ninth at Talladega in an ARCA/REMAX race in her only other start at NASCAR’s biggest track. “I think it’s a good thing for us both, and hopefully I’ll wind up beating him.”